Re: Boring Discussions

Subject: Re: Boring Discussions
From: George Allaman <gallama -at- LOOKOUT -dot- ECTE -dot- USWC -dot- USWEST -dot- COM>
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 1995 18:15:01 -0700

On Mon, 11 Dec 1995, Willard Brooks wrote:

> as a possible career option, I am wondering if this boredom does not
> reflect the field of TW itself. Please do not be offended by this

> desparate to talk about SOMETHING interesting. Is this because tech writers
> are living lives of silent desparation or am I, as a neophyte and potential
> practitioner, just missing the point and the collective fires burning out
> there in the souls of the worlds tech-pubers?

Willard - thanks for the dash of sincerety that is too often a stranger to
this list.

I am 43 and a relative newcomer to TW (nine months now). I was an
electrical engineer for ten years - with a much fatter salary - honest, I
used to BE SOMEBODY!8-) - before I made the mistake of buying a sailboat and
disappearing off to the Caribbean for a while. Well, okay, eight years.

A year ago I returned stateside and found my EE experience was old and
useless. However, I have done creative writing all my life, and I do have
a technical degree, and the job market in Denver was good, so I found it
wasn't too hard to get into TW.

I love it. And I love this listserv. I would say that if you don't feel
just an eense of a thrill and a knee-jerk to go for the kill when somebody
writes, "No, NO NOOO, you imbecile, you must ALWAYS hyphenate compound
modifier structures!!", then perhaps you are in the wrong profession.

It's not a preoccupation with minutiae. It's a love of the language, in
all its wonderful, convoluted, contradictory, myriad manifestations. I
find this list at once thought-provoking, fun, and extremely informative
for my chosen profession.

Mind you, I would have to grant you that there are definitely some anal
types hanging around here.

...

Hey, who you lookin' at??!!

|George Allaman | |
|Tech Writer | <clever, meaningful |
|Denver, Colorado | quip which somehow |
|Office (303) 624-1619 | summarizes my life |
|Home (303) 771-8060 | philosophy> |
|Alternate: georgea -at- csn -dot- net | |
|---> New address as of 1/2/96: gallama -at- uswest -dot- com <---|


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